iPad Pro + external drive works with APFS - updated

[0128672]

Edited original post: for what started out as an issue being able to access files on an external drive on my IPP, which I assumed was a power requirement turned out to be nothing more than reformatting my external to APFS. It works beautifully now with my 2018 IPP 12.9. That drive was previously formatted to use with Time Machine on my Mac Mini as MacOS Extended (Journaled), and although I could see the folders, I couldn't get access and the drive/Files app would quit.

 

[0128672]

It raises a question though. If you're iPad Pro only with no Macs and you use external drives, with what or how would you format and troubleshoot a drive without Disk Utility or another Mac app?

 

[jdb8167]

It raises a question though. If you're iPad Pro only with no Macs and you use external drives, with what or how would you format and troubleshoot a drive without Disk Utility or another Mac app?

This is a real problem if Apple wants the iPad Pro to be truly standalone. I’ve run up against not having the ability to format a drive once already. I had to use it formatted as FAT32 (I think) until I was able to get to a Mac to save and reformat the drive. That is not acceptable for a laptop replacement.

 

[sparksd]

It raises a question though. If you're iPad Pro only with no Macs and you use external drives, with what or how would you format and troubleshoot a drive without Disk Utility or another Mac app?

Then you're up a creek. Right now, I view the support for external storage as immature. Besides this issue, I and others have been having issues with storage formatted as exFAT - your only real choice if you work in a Windows environment.

File corruption on copy to external storage

Over on Reddit, I've been in a conversation with a user who was seeing photos being corrupted on copy from his iPad to a Samsung T5 SSD. He was seeing around 5% corruption in just over a hundred files copied. He suspected the T5 was a problem but I have not trusted Files with large numbers of...

forums.macrumors.com

I've stopped using Files for external storage.

 

[Nikhil72]

Definitely. I posted a few months ago that reformatting my drive to APFS was a night and day difference in transfer speeds and stability of connection. Haven’t run into needing to use it on a non-Apple product since 1) I barely transfer files between devices via external media, 2) only have Apple devices at home and at our office, and 3) I maybe use external media in general ~1 time a month.